Thursday, September 1, 2011

Get to know your heart and how you can improve your cardiovascular system. It's fascinating in how you can help your heart in numerical terms.

Stroke volume and resting heart rate - they are both interrelated and an increase in one results in a decrease in the other. Stroke volume is simply the amount of blood that is ejected from the left ventricle at each systolic beat. The lower the heart rate - the higher the stroke volume and the more enriched blood that is pumped out to the arterial walls.

Typically the stroke volume for a untrained man at rest would be 75 ml (per pump) and 105 ml for a trained athlete at rest. Think of your heart and stroke volume as it being a musical accordion - resting and pumping with each stroke. You can tune up your heart as you can a musical instrument.